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Forces of Temptation - Chapter 104

Published at 27th of October 2023 08:31:42 AM


Chapter 104

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Ch104 - Brain Invasion

Translator-Rhapsodite

Editor-CherryApple, Proofreader-adjective 

When Jiang Fang woke up, he felt something itching at his eyelashes.

There was a restless hand, gently fiddling with his eyelashes.

 

 

Jiang Fang smiled and stretched out his hand to grab the troublemaker, and smoothed the folds of his suit cuffs for him. “Okay. I’m awake.”

Li Yinhang, who had been anxiously counting the seconds, heard Jiang Fang’s voice, and her spirits were lifted. She got off the bed immediately, fumbling her way in the darkness to put on her shoes. 

Nan Zhou did not shy away from being caught in flagrante delicto, relinquishing his hand to be under Jiang Fang’s disposal.

 

Jiang Fang, “Who was touching me just now?”

Nan Zhou, “It was me.”

In the darkness, Jiang Fang applied a slight pressure on Nan Zhou’s palm with his thumb, “Then, thank you, Mr. Nan, for bringing me back.”

 

After saying that, Jiang Fang got up and got out of bed.

Unlike the previous two levels, an NPC did not show up to guide them out after they cleared the level.

There was not the tiniest source of light in the room, and it was pitch black inside, so they could only grope about looking for shoes that were taken off in the dark.

 

Nan Zhou sat cross-legged on the bed: “You took the longest time.” 

“Well. It took a while.”

Jiang Fang was the first to find a shoe and tried to put it on, “…It was worth it.”

The shoe didn’t fit him.

Jiang Fang turned to Nan Zhou, “Come here, let’s put these on you.” 

Nan Zhou obediently stretched his feet to him.

But he couldn’t help his curiosity: “What did you dream about?”

Jiang Fang held his ankle and made a subtle movement.

He thought back to the day he accidentally got Nan Zhou drunk. 

When they got to the end of the street, Nan Zhou said he was sleepy.

The so-called sleepiness was a side effect of the surge of alcohol content in his body.

 

He was so drowsy that he needed Jiang Fang to carry him on his back to move.

Jiang Fang took Nan Zhou back to the hotel and got a room. 

Jiang Fang placed Nan Zhou on the bed and assisted him in gradually removing his elegant suit, shirt, and pants so that he wouldn’t feel stifled in his sleep.

Nan Zhou was in a dazed, drunken state, his eyelashes were damp and his hair wet, but he was still conscious to some extent. He tried to hold on to the edge of the bed for support. Faced with such a scene, Jiang Fang’s heart went soft, he wanted to hold that drooping messy head and ruffle his hair.

Fortunately, he restrained himself.

The temperature set in the central air conditioning in the room was slightly lower than what would be comfortable. 

Jiang Fang began to worry about whether an omnipotent and powerful paper man would get sick and catch a cold.

But he quickly lost the smile on his lips.

——It didn’t matter if he was strong or powerful, he was obviously drunk now.

He spoke back then with the same gentleness as he was putting on Nan Zhou’s shoes for him now, “You sit for a while, I’ll change your clothes.” 

He took the bathrobe from the bathroom and put it on for Nan Zhou, properly covering the front and hem for him.

By the time he was done cleaning him up, Nan Zhou was so sleepy that he could barely keep himself up.

Jiang Fang was nearly done getting Nan Zhou ready for bed.

He wrapped one arm under Nan Zhou’s legs, and raised them slightly, and the other arm encircled his waist. 

Nan Zhou noticed this movement and thought he was allowed to go to sleep now.

 

His other hand was propped up beside Nan Zhou’s waist, he lowered his eyes and looked at the other.

The ivory tower teenager he tried to save in his childhood.

 

His spiritual partner as a teenager.

What he was now, within reach… Friends… 

However, Jiang Fang did not do anything.

He stood up and covered Nan Zhou with the quilt, tucking him in properly, and took a packet of cigarettes and a lighter provided by the hotel and left the room, locking the door on the way out.

He stood in front of the window at the end of the corridor, he didn’t smoke, just held onto the lit cigarette.

Sizzle. 

The smell of burning nicotine pervaded the air.

The lights in the corridor were motion-activated.

When Jiang Fang remained there with his arms folded without movement, the hallway lights behind him flickered off one by one, from the farthest to the nearest.

The only thing left in the dark corridor before the final light went out over Jiang Fang’s head were his pale eyes and the smouldering cigarette he gripped between his fingers. 

Cigarette ashes dropped like snowflakes on the floor, masking some of his inner loneliness, and his desire to communicate.

Jiang Fang would drink and smoke, but it was all out of social need.

He’s always had decent self-discipline, never allowed himself to become enamoured, to become addicted to anything.

He just wanted something else, as a smokescreen or sorts, to block out stars in the dark sky of his strange fixation, to distract himself. 

——However…

He lowered his head, observing his blunt body’s reaction with anger and amusement.

——It was crazy.

…… 

And right now, Jiang Fang was willingly enjoying this moment of sober madness.

The surroundings were pitch black, with no source of illumination, through his fingers, the touch became the only active sense.

 

It was like the antennae of two ants lightly making contact, sharing with each other their scent, taste, temperature, and signals.

Jiang Fang’s fingertips were nimble and sensitive because they had undergone special training. 

——Just now, it was this foot that kept nudging him on the back of his foot.

Jiang Fang recalled that night while clutching the ankle that was just big enough for him to wrap his hand around. Jiang Fang tried to control his racing heart by taking in a few deep breaths in order to not lose his self-control.

……

The wolf NPC was hunkering down in a dark corner. 

His home turf was only in the dream world.

Just now, Li Yinhang let him experience what it means to be a clever woman.

Nan Zhou had physically attacked him.

And Jiang Fang had physically attacked him inhumanely. 

After being slapped in the face by recursion, he could only watch the two people play Cinderella at his home.

And nothing could be done.

It was so disgusted by these two that the NPC Wolf could only curl up in the corner and pretend to be dead, it didn’t even want to guide the three of them out as usual.

…… 

Jiang Fang put on Nan Zhou’s shoes for him.

Nan Zhou was still clinging to that question, “What did you dream about?”

“Well…” Jiang Fang lifted his eyes, “It was my first love.”

Nan Zhou: “……” 

He was a little pleased.

It’s good that it’s not a friend.

 

Before he could figure out what exactly about the answer made him happy, Jiang Fang asked him the same question, “What about you? What did you dream about?”

Nan Zhou thought about it for a while. 

What Li Yinhang and Brother Fang dreamt about are things that they had an intimate relationship with.

In that case…

Nan Zhou confidently said, “It’s Nanji Star.”

Jiang Fang, “……” 

Hearing Nan Zhou mention its name, Nanji Star twitched its little nose and flew over to him. Before it could land on Nan Zhou’s shoulders, it was grabbed mid-air by someone and backhandedly thrown into the storage compartment.

Nan Zhou heard Nanji Star squeak and turned around, he searched the bed but turned up empty handed.

Nan Zhou, “… Nanji Star?”

Jiang Fang put on his other shoe for him and then his own quickly and said, “To my place. I will take good care of it.” 

Nanji Star, who was confusedly scratching the storage compartment: “???”

After getting ready, the three of them searched around in the dark for the door.

The formerly impossible-to-break door now simply required a little push to open wide.

The moment the last person stepped out of the dark and humid cabin of desire, the door immediately boomed shut and sealed from behind, almost hitting Li Yinhang’s heel. 

The wolf’s dislike of them was clearly evident.

Looking back, there were only two words for them:

Get lost.

Re-entering the brain marrow corridor, the chewing sound with heavy saliva sound had stopped at some point. 

Instead there was a strange, constant sound of water flowing.

Similar to the rippling sounds of water sloshing heard continuously underwater in a swimming pool.

 

They still had three doors left.

Adding up all the time spent exploring, they had 24 hours to spare. 

Just who knew what was hidden inside those three doors.

So, they need to hurry up.

Nan Zhou and the others bounced around in the long corridor of twists and turns.

Finally, they chose a door that was comparatively the farthest away from the original library in a straight line. 

This entry was unexpectedly surprising.

The door handle was twisted once, then twice, but wouldn’t open smoothly at all.

Li Yinhang, who was the one initially trying to open the door, turned back to look at the two big brothers, asking for help.

From the characteristics exhibited by the [Brain Invasion] instance, Nan Zhou did not intend to forcefully break the door. 

He even used a pin to test his lock-picking skills, which he had recently upgraded to Level 2.

He and Jiang Fang squatted down to study the door, and soon found a clue.

There was a subtle difference between the lock of this door and the five other doors.

There were five, thin scale lines where the keyhole should’ve been. 

Three of the five lines had a blood-red liquid lightly dripping off, as if they were thin blood vessels.

And the other two were still blank.

This was a hint not very difficult to understand.

And the keyhole of this door was wider than the other doors. 

So, Nan Zhou naturally looked in through the keyhole and wondered if he could see what was on the other end.

On the other side of the keyhole, there was a hazy scarlet colour, it was difficult to make out exactly what it was.

 

When Nan Zhou was about to withdraw, suddenly, the scarlet retreated back.

An eye, its sclera completely red, as if it had caught [conjunctivitis/pink eye], appeared on the other side of the lock. 

The eye full of blood vessels disarranged like a cobweb glanced at Nan Zhou for a moment, then the muscles around it curved up like it was smiling at him, giving off a creepy feeling.

Nan Zhou thought nothing of it, and directly stabbed it with a pin.

Eye, “……”

——You motherfucker? 

Obviously, the eyeball was quite proud of its frightening skills.

Previously, whenever the players saw the eyeball, they always turned around and ran away scared, so, thinking it would be the same this time, the eyeball didn’t dodge when Nan Zhou poked it with the pin.

Nan Zhou clearly felt that he had stabbed something.

When Nan Zhou leaned over to look again, the eyeball had disappeared. 

It also took away his pin.

Nan Zhou held the door and walked away from the keyhole with a calm expression.

Jiang Fang asked him, “Did you see anything?”

Nan Zhou nodded, “Yeah. There was an eye looking at me just now.” 

Li Yinhang, “……”

Nan Zhou said in a declarative tone, “It was poked by me and ran away.”

Nan Zhou’s tone was too calm. Li Yinhang imagined the scene and felt goosebumps all over her body.

But since Nan Zhou didn’t show any response, Li Yinhang didn’t want to overreact. 

She thought that Nan Zhou had already successfully offended the NPCs without even going inside.

What else can she say?

 

The deed is already done.

Jiang Fang concluded, “This should be the last door we have to enter.” 

Nan Zhou and him locked eyes for a moment.

They had already played three games.

These games appeared to be unrelated stages that may be entered at random, yet the clues hidden within them were quite intriguing.

In order to collect more clues, the three chose one of the two remaining doors they could enter and pushed open the door. 

Just as the door opened, their vision went completely dark yet again, and a delicate sweet fragrance of candy spread out.

After opening his eyes, Nan Zhou found that they were in the middle of a dense forest.

The birds chirped and light filtered through the dense canopy.

There was a faint fragrance of the plants and trees around. The snow-white pebbles on the ground were like crumbled bread crumbs, which were evenly sprinkled on the path. The only weird thing was that they couldn’t see the door they came in through, nor another one to get out of, they were in the middle of the road which formed an artificial path extending into the far distance. 

Seeing the trail of breadcrumbs on the path and the sweet fragrance permeating through the air, combined with previous experience, the three people immediately guessed the content of this fairy tale.

Li Yinhang, “In this fairy tale, is there a witch who likes to deceive children?”

Jiang Fang followed and added, “A brother and sister were abandoned by their parents in the woods.”

This was Nan Zhou’s most beloved fairy tale. 

So he said the keywords without hesitation, “The Candy House“





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